ESP-IDF JSON Support - Custom Naming

[martysweet]

Describe the bug
With the VSCode plugin, I am looking to use the flasher_args.json functionality to read in a custom binary (containing NVS flash data).

AFAIK flasher_args.json is an internal idf framework file, and additional parameters cannot be easily added via a simple idf.py build command (I may be wrong, but haven't found much/any documentation on this).

To avoid conflicts, my workaround is to create a manual file called wokwi_flasher_args.json which will then:

• On build, copy ./wokwi_flasher_args.json to ./build/wokwi_flasher_args.json
• firmware: 'build/wokwi_flasher_args.json' is set

However, it looks like the current implementation may be checking for the exact path.
The same file, with a different filename (within build) results in a simulation boot loop.
It would be ideal if it could see it as a .json, and derive that it is a flasher_args from the extension - or is this a known issue with the functionality?

To Reproduce
ESP-IDF project:

[wokwi]
version = 1
firmware = 'build/flasher_args.json'
elf = 'build/example_app.elf'

Works, however:

[wokwi]
version = 1
firmware = 'build/my_custom_flasher_args.json'
elf = 'build/example_app.elf'

Does not work.

Expected behavior
I would like custom naming support for flasher_args.json, to avoid any internal conflicts with idf.py tooling.

Environment (please complete the following information):

• OS: Linux
• VSCode
• Wokwi Extension v2.5.3

[urish]

Hi Marty, you can achieve this by putting your own flasher_args.json in a different directory, e.g. build/temp/flasher_args.json. Wokwi looks at the file name (but not the complete path) to determine if it is an ESP IDF flasher file.

[martysweet]

Hi @urish, thanks for the tip, that has worked nicely!

I ended up putting it in ./wokwi/flasher_args.json.

[martysweet]

Hi @urish,

It appears the change detection/autoreload logic isn't applied when the flasher_args.json file is not directly in build/.

When in ./wokwi/flasher_args.json or ./build/wokwi/flasher_args.json the entire "Wokwi Simulator" tab has to be closed and reopened to load the new binary (Stop/Start or Restart does not).

When in ./build/flasher_args.json, the binary change is detected and the simulation automatically restarts.

Let me know if you need further details,
Thanks!

Marty